Help with Command Script

Stratics Veteran

I am trying to create a command script macro that resizes a hotbar down to 1 square or toggles the visibility of a hotbar.

Before I start, I thought I'd ask if anyone else has done this already.

At a glimpse, I am thinking of using something like this...
command
script WindowSetShowing("HotBar3",false)

ultimately I would like the script to see if the Hotbar is currently visible or not and do the other and perhaps using the HotbarSystem.HighlightSpellIcon() highlight itself when the hotbar is visible and using HotbarSystem.UnhighlightSpellIcon() unhighlight itself when it is not.

Stratics Veteran

Lesser used hotbars.
For example, I have my mining hotbars (fairly intensive set of hotbars with all the ore types and such) on one of my guys.
I also use my miner for tons of other things and don't need to see those hotbars unless I am mining.
So just wanted an easy way to reclaim that screen real estate, when I got the guy out doing his other errands.

For other characters, I imagine the use for things like reagents. On my alchemist with his 100% lrc suit I don't need to see how many reagents he has all the time. But when I decide to grind potions I'd like to see that list.

Sure I can just manually resize the hotbar, and find myself doing that often. (I might have a little attention defecit when it comes to UO and I move around from task to task and back when I play). So I thought I'd try to figure out a quick way.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Lesser used hotbars.
For example, I have my mining hotbars (fairly intensive set of hotbars with all the ore types and such) on one of my guys.
I also use my miner for tons of other things and don't need to see those hotbars unless I am mining.
So just wanted an easy way to reclaim that screen real estate, when I got the guy out doing his other errands. ....

Click to expand...

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I just couldn't picture it at first. One macro key to open all hot bars at once would be nice for mining and smelting.

Quite a few of my characters are utterly loaded with hotbars. It would be nice if I could at least tab between a civilian set and a working set, much like toggling war mode.

I never got into KR quite early enough to understand and explore the use of the rotating hotbars, but bringing them back sounds like a tremendously useful thing.

Just a thought: Is it possible to bring a hotbar to the fore in terms of layering?? As if you've clicked on the handle, but without needing to see it to do so. If such was the case, you could arrange several alternate hotbars directly on top of each other to save space. Ostensibly it would be a rotating hotbar only without the inherited keystrokes. It would be good, at least, for mutually exclusive displays and clicked-on items.

Stratics Veteran

Coming up to a bunch of roadblocks on trying to get this done.
May have to open up the lua and mod it out with a new function or something.
Wish there was a quick togglehotbar function.
If I can figure out, I'll post but may have to leave this one up to the experts (Though I know my way around a lua file or two, I still am just a hack)

I should say I was warned this first approach was utterly insane, so.. if it doesn't make sense to anyone I shan't be surprised or offended. If it's of no use to anyone, feel free to disregard it.

The top left picture shows a 6x6 array of horizontal hotbars, further illustrated by the arrows. Hidden underneath that, as we see by the handles poking up, is a 6x6 array of vertical hotbars.

If we click on all the vertical hotbar handles across the top, it brings all the vertical hotbars to the fore, as seen in the top middle picture. This presents us with another 36 cells, as distinguished by the downward arrows, without taking up twice as much screen space.

Clicking on any single hotbar handle will bring that row or column to the fore. It could result in all sorts of patterns of cells, as represented by the scattered arrows in the top right picture. You would have to carefully plan which cells held what information, or at least be flexible about how you accessed them, for this to work.

--

Perhaps a slightly more efficient arrangement in terms of organisation, less so in terms of space, would be the lower left picture.

Here we have a 5x6 array of cells made from horizontal bars, represented by the arrows pointing right. Below that we have another array of horizontal hotbars, 6x6. The rightmost cell of each of these hotbars can be seen from underneath the uppermost hotbars, represented by the left-facing arrows.

Clicking on all these rightmost cells brings those bars to the fore, as per the lower middle picture. In this example the hotbars are locked so that the handle doesn't overlap the top one. You could just stagger it half a cell but I liked the neatness of the cells lining up. You could also make the bars shorter on the left end.

In this arrangement, one horizontal bar basically overrides another, so you would put mutually exclusive things in the alternate hotbars, or at least stuff you didn't need to access simultaneously.

Depending on the application, you may or may not want clickable items in those rightmost cells. Something that might work as a clickable would be a tool like a sewing kit. When the underbar comes to the fore, it could have information or items pertinent to tailoring, such as leathers, bone, cloth, arcane gems, and so on. That way when you click to sew something, all of your related inventory is displayed.

--

Myself, I haven't really thought of stuff for it yet but I'm considering using these layouts as I'm running low on space. Scaling the interface isn't really an option as it seems to carry over onto characters that have no such issue, plus it makes things harder to read or click.

I might put all my RP emotes and related stuff in one array, then overlay it with another that contains stuff that I gather while hunting. That way I can have a town/dungeon toggle to my hotbars.

--

If anyone knows a Command script that can bring several hotbars to the fore at once without the need for clicking, it might save me some tricky arrangements.

Attached Files:

Stratics Veteran

So after trying multiple things to accomplish this the best I have done is a simple script that must be followed by a manual "reload_ui" event

Working with a vertical hotbar I created a macro (which I called Hide Hotbar8) with the following command script.

script WindowSetDimensions("Hotbar8",50,70)

I put this at the bottom of my hotbar8.
after pressing this I have to use ctrl-r which is the key I have set to reload the interface.
The result is a vertical hotbar with 1 square.

I have a second macro (which I called show hotbar8) placed on the top of my vertical with the following command
script WindowSetDimensions("Hotbar8",50,570)

again I have to hit the ctrl-r to reload the interface
the result is I have a vertical hotbar back to the original 11 squares.

for horizontal hotbars switch the numbers.
The one number is always 50 (unless of course that is just for my UI scale?)
The calculations for the other number depends on how many slots you want to see.
[(number of slots to be seen) x 50] + 20

Would love some more help with this if anyone willing to work with it.
I haven't tried the script with multiple hotbars yet.
Lack of time in RL forced me to put off this little project for some time.

Stratics Veteran

The rotating hotbar CAN be brought back, just have to figure out the exact calls in the KR XML and LUA files accordingly. The textures are still in the EC texture files, they just aren't actively used.

I'm just NOT an LUA person... XML and textures, sure.

And yes, I'm still working on the gridless project which I believe is more or less turning into the next skin I plan on releasing. Not going to give anything away yet as it has a LOT of work to go yet.

Stratics Veteran

What about repositioning the hotbar? That is, leave it open but move it down or to the right, off-screen. You could park a number of hotbars outside the viewable area and pull them in as needed.

Click to expand...

Great idea Fink! I will try working on that option next. Afraid I might still have to do the manual reload unless I can find a way around that...and there is a little trick boolean in the lua files that is supposed to keep you from moving stuff off screen (but we all know that sometimes doesn't work as it should). Thanks for the direction.

And Dermott if I haven't told you before...you the man! If I find anything on the rotating hotbar call I will definitely post it for you.

Stratics is the oldest continually running MMORPG Fansite on the Internet. Founded in 1997 Stratics has served the Ultima Online Community for 18 years. We strive to provide the most complete social experience for Ultima Online players.